Sudan's Bashir denounces Israel as enemy

KHARTOUM, Sudan 
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir says his country is seeking the capability to defend itself against Israeli strikes, and will never normalize relations with the Jewish state.

His remarks carried by the official Sudan news agency SUNA on Friday also repeated Khartoum's claim that an explosion at a military factory in the capital last month was from an Israeli attack.

In the transcript from an appearance on the semi-official Blue Nile TV this week, Bashir calls Israel the "Zionist enemy" that "will remain the enemy" and rejects the possibility of normalized relations between the two states.

Israel has not commented on the explosion, which killed four. A U.S.-based monitoring group has said satellite imagery suggests a strike.

In 2009, Sudan also blamed Israel for an attack on an arms convoy there.